The Gay Male in Young Adult Literature

Edith Cowan University Research Online

Theses : Honours Theses

2000

A Queer Love : The Gay Male in Young Adult Literature

Skot John Arbery Edith Cowan University

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Recommended Citation Arbery, S. J. (2000). A Queer Love : The Gay Male in Young Adult Literature. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ theses_hons/858

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The Use of Thesis statement is not included in this version of the thesis. A Queer Love: The Gay Male in Young Adult Literature

Bachelor of Arts (English) with Honours

Skot John Arbery - 0961675

Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences

Submitted; June 7, 200Q Abstract

The purpose of my thesis· A Queer Love: The Gay Male 'n Young Adult Literature -is to offer an analysis of seven young adult novels that incorporate the construction and representation of while male homosexuality. I intend to

explore what it is lhnt can be learnt from these texts about 'being gay'. It is my

assertion that! will be able to show that, although taboos have been shifted in

young adult literature to allow the exploration of issues relating to gay adoles­

cence, that which is condoned as acceptable 'gay behavior' remains restricted.

I propose that in order for gay adolescents to gain a positive reading from a young adult text incorporating homosexuality, those responsible for the

production of these texts must move away from promulgating stereotypes of the gay man. What these 'exts need to focus on is ensuring that homophobia be­ comes as socially unacceptable as racism has become at the end of the twen­ tieth century.

Throughout my thesis I will be endeavoring to place the texts that I am using in to a cultural context which will reflect the influence upon young adult literature by a variety of groups. These include authors, publishers, educators, librarians and parents. Another important influence upon the production of Young Adult

Literature is the society in which it is produced. For this reason I have selected texts from North America, Great Britain and Australia in order to investigate how these factors converge to shape the construction of homosexual characters in

Young Adult Literature. Signed Declaration

I certify that this thesis does 1101, to the best of my knowledge and belief' (i) incmporate wit/untt acknowledp,mellt any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any institution of higher learning,· (ii) contain WZ)' material previously published or written hy another person except where due 1 eference is made in the text,· or (iii) contain any defamatory material.

June 7, 2000.

ii Cable of Contents

... ------. ------I Section Page( a)

· ... --o~----.-oc,-,-,,_"c··-"--'- -' l-"'""-"--==o __ --,.,-__ ,.------~,-- -· Abstract

Declaration ii .I ;I

I ' Table of Contents iii I

I Introduction 1 - 5 !I

Chapter One 6-13

Chapter Two 14-30

Chapter Three 31 . 41 .,.y: .It Chapter Four 42-50

Chapter Five 51 . 54

Conclusion 55-57

,.. '- ~-

References 58.61

iii Introduction

Barbara Gittings is cited as claiming that:

most gays, it seems, at some point have gone to books in an effort to ur,derstand about being gay (Fuoss, 1994, p.159).

My essay will focus on how homosexuality has been represented in a selection of youog adult texts. These texts are Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857) by

Thomas Hughes, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger, I'll Get There.

It Better Be Worth The Trip (1969) by John Donovan, A Candle for Saint Antony

(1977) by Eleanor Spence, Qance on my Grave (1982) by Aidan Chambers,

Two Weeks With The Queen (1986) hy Morris Gleitzman and, finally, The

Drowning of Stephan Jones (1991) by Bette Greene. I believe this investigation is worthwhile for two reasons. Firstly, if Gittings' claim that most gays do turn to literature in order to gain an understanding about their sexuality is accurate, the question to ask is what is it in these texts which contributes to the development of this understanding. It is important to bear in mind that gays are not the only ones to gain an understanding of "the gay experience" from these texts.

Heterosexual readers' understanding of what it is to be gay is also influenced by the same material that is informing the gay reader.

Secondly, and of equal importance, is that lhe number of critical works which examine homosexuality in young adult literature are few. While Jenkins states:

approximately one hundred young adult novels with gay ... content have been published since ... 1969 (1998, p.1 ), which averages out at 2·9 titles per year, Michael Cart (1997, p.9) is able to source only five significant critical works. Linked to this lack of critical examina­ tion is the fact that, of the critical work available, there is a definite American

1 bias in the texts that are examined (Hanckel & Cunningham, 1980; Ford, 1994; St. Clair, 1995; Cart, 1997; Jenkins, 1998). The texts which I have selected to examine have been chosen from English and Australian as well as American authors. In order to investigate how homosexuality is represented in young adult lit­ erature, it is necessary to highlight shifts which have occurred in societal atti­ tudes that have influenced the way in which homosexuality is understood. To do this I will, for the most part, be drawing upon the work of Spencer (1995). One such societal change is the coining of the term homosexuality itself in 1869, by Swiss doctor Karoly Maria Benkert. Our contemporary understanding of what it is to be gay arises from this development.

My discussion will also consider the issue of censorship. Literature in all its forms has been subject to censorship, but the field of children's and young adult literature is, perhaps, the most vulnerable. Censorship in young adult literature operates in a multi-layered manner with each group involved in the production, distribution and reception of these texts having an opinion, and the power to act upon that opinion, regarding what is appropriate for the intended audience. Authors, editors, publishers, book-sellers, librarians and parents all influence the way in which texts deal with social issues - in this case, homosexuality. Hence, censorship must be regarded as both influencing and influenced by societal attitudes towards homosexuality.

It is also necessary to define the terms that I will be using, namely: gay, adolescence, and "the problem novel". Throughout this discussion I will use the common, contemporary term "gay" to refer to all aspects of white-male homo­ sexuality. Although a definitive explanation as to whether homosexualiW 'is innate or acquired' (Mcintosh, 1996, p. 34), has yet to be formulated, Doctor Richard lsay defines homosexuals as men who,

have a predominant erotic attraction to others of the same sex. Their fantasies ~------~ 2 are either entirely or almost entirely directed toward other men ... [however] a man need not engage in sexual activity to be homosexual (1989, p. 11).

Although there have always been children, adolescence has not always been recognised as a key period in human development. Machet argues that it was not until,

the second part of Victoria's reign .... that the concept of the adolescent as a distinct and separate stage began to develop (1990, p. 297).

I define adolescence as that period between the ages of thirteen to around eighteen which is marked by both physical and psychological changes in an in­ dividual. The onset of puberty is commonly accepted as marking a child's transition from childhood into adolescence. Puberty results in both a growth spurt and the development of secondary sexual characteristics. Developmental psychologist Robert Havighurst proposes that the psychological changes an adolescent goes through can be divided into eleven phases, and that the suc­ cessful negotiating of these phases can be seen 'as elements of the overall sense of self that adolescents carry with them' (Ingersoll, n.d., p. 1) into adult­ hood.

Ingersoll (n.d., p 1-2) explains Havighurst's eleven phases as comprising the following stages. The adolescent must: 1) adjust to a new physical sense of self;

2) adjust to new intellectual abilitie3; 3) adjust to increased cognitive demands at school; 4) develop expanded verbal skills; 5) develop a personal sense of identity; 6) establish adult vocational goals; 7) estab:ish emotional and psychological independence from his I her parents; 8) develop stable and pro­ ductive peer relationships; 9) learn to manage his I her sexuality; 10) adopt a personal value system; and 11) develop increased impulse control and behav- 3 ioural maturity. The adolescent does not achieve each task separately, however, and can be attempting to balance several of them at the same time.

Despite the fact that adolescents read from a wide variety of genres, specific narrative structures have come to be considered as composing 'the main body of young adult literature' (Donelson & Nilsen, 1980, p.181) and these are narra­ tive structures which involve,

contemporary social issues told in the first person or limited third person from the viewpoint of a teen protagonist (Jenkins, 1998, p.1 ).

Egolf (1980, p. 66-79) labels these narratives as "problem novels" whose de­ fining characteristic is that they tend to be issue driven. By this I mean that simple one or two word descriptions can be used to explain what the text is really "about". What then becomes important is the way in which the texts treat the issue at hand. The nature of the genre itself, as well as the intended audi­ ence, dictate to a large extent how issues are presented.

Characteristics include a limited vocabulary, short sentences and paragraphs, the use of colloquial language, and a primarily urban setting. One further characteristic that is central to the young adult problem novel is the means by which a conclusion is constructed. Rarely does the problem novel suggest that the adolescent protagonist has solved his I her problem - rather, the vast majority of young adult problem novels involve conclusions which convey the im­ pression that 'the long road to recovery has not even started, or is only just beginning' (Egolf, 1981, p. 72).

A consequence of the short sentences and paragraphs coupled with the fact that these texts are seldom in excess of two hundred and fifty pages is that there is rarely space enough for the construction and development of well-rounded characters. This is especially the case for those characters which occupy a

4 secondary position within the narrative. For this reason, the use of stereotyped characters has become a common-place option taken by many authors, especially in those texts which explore gay adolescence.

5 Chapter One

In this chapter I will give a brief overview of homosexuality up until 1857, the

year of publication of the first text in my discussion. Katz (1996, p.177) explains

that as it is understood today, homosexuality has a history that dates from 1869

when the term first appeared in a German pamphlet. The behaviors which serve

to identify the gay, however, have a history which can be traced through western

ctvilisation as far back as the fifth century BC and the ancient civilisation of the

Greeks.

The notion that an individual's identity could be largely defined by his sexual

practices would have been an entirely alien concept to the ancient Greek. The

image of the older man taking a younger boy as a lover and pupil has come to

be viewed as one of twentieth-century society's greatest taboos. Fifth-century

BC Athenian society, however, took it for granted that just such a relationship

would ensure that their boys became men. Once a male c'tizen reached the age

of twenty-five, he was expected to marry and father a small family all the while

maintaining,

a balanced bisexuality, whereby a citizen was married, was in love with a boy and was also seen to go with courtesans or had a mistress, was normal behavior (Spencer, 1995, p. 47).

It is fair to say, as Spencer does (195, p. 47-48), that the idea of bisexuality was as deeply entrenched in Athenian society as is the idea of exclusive het­ erosexuality in our contemporary western society.

It is important to keep in mind that in fifth-century BC Athenian society,

a relatively small group made up of the adult male citizens held a virtual monopoly of social power and constituted a clearly defined elite 6 within the political and social life of the city-state (Halperin, 1993, p.418).

Before the boy became a man, however, he was the passive partner in sexual relations with an older man. In Athenian society from the age of twelve to around fifteen, boys were thought to be of an age whereby they should have found themselves an adult male lover- who fullilled the role of 'mentor' and instructed the boy in how to become a man. Spencer (1995, p. 50) draws attention to obscene graffiti discovered in the ruins of ancient Thera which specifically makes reference to anal intercourse taking place in such relationships and is believed to have formed part of a male initiation I rite of passage experience.

In most cases, the boy remained the passive partner until the age of eighteen.

By the age of twenty-five he was expected to have assumed an active and dominant role. This socially sanctioned bisexuality existed in Greek society until the rise of Christianity- which brought with it serious penalties, first secular and later judicial, against all forms of sexual expression that were not heterosexual and in the missionary position. Interestingly, heterosexual intercourse with the woman above the man was considered deviant sexual behavior for centuries!

According to Spencer, by the mid-fourteenth century, societal views on sexual identity were markedly different from those in the ancient world - brought about by,

the combined autocracy of church and state which refused to countenance bisexuality (Spencer, 1995, p. 125).

In fact, as Weeks observes:

the West during the Christian era was ... unique in its taboo against all forms of homosexuality (1996, p. 44).

With both state and church condemning all same-sex acts it would seem strange 7 that bisexuality (and later homosexuality) could not be totally erased from society- especially when the offence was a capital one. Spencer offers an explanation, claiming that the persistence of bisexuality in such a restrictive and punitive environment was,

a social one compounded of economics, property and masculine anxiety over the validity of heirs (1995, p. 126).

By the mid-fourteenth century, the idea of same-sex relations had come to be connected with,

heresy and usury, [and] was linked to something more sinister- sorcery and de monism (Spencer, 1995, p. 127).

To be identified as being gay was a sin so heinous that the details of sodomy trials often ended up being burnt along with the offender:

for it was believed that the naming and detailing of the acts rnighi pollute the hearer and encourage yet more sin (Spencer, 1995, p. 128).

The Black Death, which killed approximately one-third of the European

population between 1348 to 1350, not only profoundly influenced entire

economies but also caused widespread social unrest. In the attenmath of this

devastation to the population law-makers started 'to see sodomy as a grave threat to the repor Jlation of society' (Spencer, 1995, p. 128). The result of this

attitude can be seen in the punishments dealt out to those convicted of sodomy -

convictions that were determined without the benefit of counsel for the defence.

Burning was the punishment for men over the age of thirty-three after their prop­

erty had been forfeited to the city. This was the most serious of punishments

8 and would seem to have been only enforced for the more brutal of offenders.

Fines, public whippings and exile were more likely the penalties to be expected as punishment in a sodomy trial (Spencer, 1995, p.128-129).

These attitudes remained in place until the seventeenth century which saw the next major 'shift in the sensibilities of Western society' (Spencer, 1995, p.

171 ). This shift began in England and coincided with the rise of both Protestant­ ism and Capitelism. Protestant reformers such as Luther and Calvin brought with them:

the idea that all sexual expression outside Christian marriage must be repressed (Spencer, 1995, p. 171).

These attitudes quickly strengthened the social power of marriagtl, and as a re­ sult, all forms of same-sex relations became increasingly maligned (Spencer,

1995, p. 172). The seventeenth century also brought with it the beginnings of

Capitalism which caused a significant reassessment to take place within society regarding the nature of gender.

As the largely agricultural society of the early seventeenth century was re­ placed with a mostly mercantile one by century's end, the way in which gender and the family were perceived markedly changed. The middle-classes began to exert their influence and the new petit-bourgeoisie placed a high premium upon self-discipline, hard work and frugality (Spencer, 1995, p. 193-194). Tl·1e accu­ mulation of wealth was now easier to achieve and could be used to rise in social standing and to positions of influence. While the man was out trading and building his wealth, the wife at home became the visible means by which he could display his success. As Spencer observes:

the need to drive the market economy for personal profits becomes ... an overriding obsession and is effective in inhibiting any emotional intimacy

9 with other males (1995, p. 194).

Marriage for love had come to prominence by the end of the seventeenth century, replacing the importance of property and class as a criterion. This and the importance of the family as consumers helped to ensure that the gay was not only rejected as a deviant, but also effectively obscured and driven under­ ground by the burgeoning consumerist society.

The Industrial Revolution, in turn, provided employment which gave people money that they were prepared to spend on the growing market of non-essential items being produced in increasing numbers by small rural factories - for example, toys, lace and pins. Textile factories produced new machine-woven materials such as cottons, linens and silks while the printing press made publishing easier and more efficient. As a result publishers were producing journals, stories and novels in great quantities 'and they all had one theme - romantic love' (Spencer, 1995, p. 195).

In this proliferation of production, however, there was no place for the gay.

Because the gay does not marry or have children, as it was believed, his posi­ tion within a consumer society was adversely affected because,

he could find no place in it, few goods were made and none mass produced with him in mind (Spencer, 1995, p. 196).

Indeed, it was not until the early 1990's that the profitability of the 'gay dollar' was recognised.

The eighteenth century paved the way for the medicalisation of homosexuality in the late nineteenth century for it was during this period that the,

division of people into two separate biological sexes, ... and genders ... began to predominate (Spencer, 1995, p. 212).

10 The categories of male and female I masculine and feminine allowed behaviors to be ascribed to 'types' of people. It is from this time that the image of the ef­ feminate gay began to be promulgated. The passive male came to be seen, in­ creasingly, as having no place within society. The gay was beginning to be thought of as a blasphemy against heterosexuality which had started to equate itself with orthodoxy- both social and religious. Therefore, during the eighteenth century two significant changes took place in the way sexuality was theorised: firstly was the shift:

from a belief in two genders and three sexes to one of three genders and two sexes (Spencer, 1995, p. 214).

The second was that any traces of male bisexuality came to be firmly associated with the image of the passive sodomite- who was, by the end of the eighteenth century, regarded as little more that a male prostitute with no claim to a masculine identity. It is from this period of history that the concept of masculinity itself became increasingly associated with orthodox heterosexuality and

'increasingly dependent upon the feminine other' (Spencer, 1995, p. 217).

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the American colonies waged their

War of Independence against British rule. In 1776, just one year into the eight year conflict, leading Virginia citizens· including Thomas Jefferson, future

President • offered a review of the colony's laws. Their intention was to remove all traces of the British system from thetr own statutes, thereby more accurately reflecting the principles of the Republican movement of the time. One sugges­ tion offered by Jefferson was that along with rape and bestiality, sodomy should be punished by castration • previously the punishment had been the death penalty (Spencer, 1995, p. 232). It can be argued that Jefferson's suggestion marks the beginning of the medicalisation of the gay. The death penalty had

11 proved to be an ineffective deterrent which meant that the cause of same-sex desire must be a biological one- a belief the medical fraternity took up and still pursue. For example, in 1991 neuroscier.tist Sirnon LeVay released a paper in which he linked gay behavior to brain structure (Nelkin & Lindee, 1996, p.312).

As the eighteenth century gave way to the nineteenth, England entered a period of unrivalled prosperity and influence. With the British extending the bord­ ers of their empire, the need arose for a particular image to be presented

(Spencer, 1995, p. 253). This "age of empire" served to bolster:

the conviction [of] ... the male as superior being, as all-conquering and masterful, the ultimate judge and arbiter of morals (Spencer, 1995, p.253).

The passive male became even rnore reviled in the face of such attitudes - attitudes that were being spread throughout the British Empire by the middle­ class. The gay continued to be associated with images of effeminacy and was perceived as being less than a whole or complete man.

Somewhat paradoxically, however, the nineteenth century also saw the de­ velopment of the somewhat peculiar concept of "special friendships" between men which appeared to utilise all the devices of romantic love with one very no­ ticeable exclusion. While,

young rnen of this ... age walked about anm in arm, talked of loving friendships and wrote emotional let­ ters to each other (Spencer, 1995, p. 257), it would seem that they were unaware of any sexual element in these friend­ ships. Many of these "special friendships" that developed were born in these­ questered environment of single-sex boarding schools. Between 1841 and 1870, three tirnes as many of these single-sex schools were founded across England,

12 while as late as 1850 boys at boarding schools shared a bed (Spencer, 1995, p.

270). It would come as no surprise then that in such an environment, intimate relationships were to become established between the students. John Addington

Symonds, British author and critic, is cited as saying such relationships were common-place when he was a student at Harrow in 1854, aged fourteen

(Spencer, 1995, p. 270).

Not withstanding this, by thC3 middle of the nineteenth century the sodomite was perceived as a social and moral deviate. The passive male had become a potent threat to tile innocence and relative defencelessness of the family. While

Continental Europe rescinded the death penalty as punishment for sodomy,

Britain became more repressive in its attitudes. America had rescinded the death penalty as punishment by the end of the eighteenth century but, like

Europe, had put in its place prison sentences ranging from ten years to life. It is in this environment that the now classic Tom Brown's Schoolday§ was first pub­ lished in England in 1857.

13 ChopterCwo

In this chapter I will examine how the construction and representation of the gay is presented in the three earliest texts of my essay- Tom Brown's

Schooldays (1857), The Catcher in the Rye (1951), and I'll Get There. It Better

Be Worth The Trip (1969) -which will take the discussion to 1969 and the birth of the modern gay rights rnovernent. The publication of Tom Brown's

Schooldays marks, oat only the birth of the school story genre (Hibberd, 1976, p.

64) but also, I believe, the first intentional reference by an author to same-sex relationships in a text intended for a child reader. Hughes ostensibly wrote this text for his eight year old son, Maurice, who was preparing to leave home in order to attend Rugby school as a boarding student - just as Hughes had himself, twenty years previously. His intention was to express 'what I should like to say to him before he went to school' (Carpenter & Prichard, 1995, p. 532), in the form of a story. It is for this reason that Torn's encounter with the 'white­ hand&d curly-headed' (Hughes, 1857, p. 182) boy is of significance.

This incident occurs in Part Two of Tom Brown's Schooldays, after a new boy, George Arthur, has been placed under Tom's care by Dr. Arnold, the school head-master. Tom is described as having undergone a noticeable change in his behaviour with this change being attributed to the oew found responsibility he feels toward Arthur. Tom treats Arthur as a mother would a child, with Tom seeing Arthur as being 'sadly timid' (Hughes, 1857, p. 180) and:

all over nerves; anything you say seems to hurt him like a cut or a blow (Hughes, 1857, p. 181).

Tom's friend East draws attention to the way in which Tom is fussing over

Arthur, calling him a 'dry-nurse' (Hughes, 1857, p. 181) and claiming:

you'll spoil young hopeful with too much coddling ... he'll never be worth a button, if you go on keeping 14 him under your skirts (Hughes, 1857, p. 181).

It is after this discussion that Tom and East encounter the 'white-handed curly­ headed' (Hughes, 1857, p. 182) boy who is one of those younger fellows who has been,

petted and pampered by some of the big fellows, who ... spoil them for everything ... in this world and the next (Hughes, 1857, p. 182).

This boy calls on Tom and East to "fag" for a rival school house, to which the boys take offence to and set out to teach him a lesson. Tom and East, therefore, are not attacking him because of what he does with other boys, but because he allows older boys to "spoil" him. He represents a weaker opponent to Tom who can be overcome with no risk of retaliation. Hibberd (1976, p. 66) proposes that

Tom and East's encounter with this boy is included so as to remove any gay overt0nes from the "special friendship" that is to grow between Tom and the new boy, George Arthur. The friendship that is constructed between Tom and Arthur can be read as an almost quintessential example of the non-sexual special friendships that Spencer (1995, p. 262) highlights as being in vogue at this time.

To me, however, the inclusion of this incident would imply that Hughes was aware of the likelihood that his son would encounter other boys who had sex with each other while away at school. This is borne out by the points raised in the previous chapter concerning same-sex boarding schools at this time, and by the fact that Hughes was a past boarding student at the real Rugby school in the

1830's. This reading is also supported by the single foot-note that appears in

Tom Brown's Schooldays. This foot-note relates to the description of the white­ handed boy, as detailed above. In it, Hughes says:

a kind and wise critic, an old Rugbeian, notes here in the margin: 15 The 'small friend system was not so utterly bad from 1841-1847.' Before that, too, there were many noble friendships between big and little boys, IJut I can't strike out the passe.ge; many boys will know why it is left in (1857, p. 182).

The implication of this loot-note would suggest that Hughes was aware not only of the prevalence of these "noble" friendships (represented by, firstly, the friendship between Tom and East and, later, the friendship between Tom and

Arthur), but also of the potential for these friendships to become more physical in nature- rather than the purely emotional attachments associated with the concept of "special" friendships. By incorporating the foot-note in the description of the white-handed boy, Hughes makes a clear distinction between the friendship which is developing between Tom and Arthur (a noble friendship) and the "friendships" the white-handed boy allows himself to be drawn into with the older boys (relationships that are 'utterly bad' and 'spoil' the participants in the eyes of both man and God).

Through the reference to 'noble friendships', it can be read that Hughes does not condone gay relationships but does acknowledge that such relationships do occur in single-sex boarding schools. The fact that Hughes states that he can not remove the reference to gay adolescence would suggest that he had been urged to do so by his publisher I editor. Hughes believes that it is necessary to the over-all story, convinced that his male readers will completely understand why it is included. However, what it is that these young boys allow to be done to them which 'spoils' them is left to the imagination of the reader.

The implication behind this encounter with the white-handed boy then be­ comes one relating to issues of masculine anxiety about how an individual boy's masculinity is judged by others. East has challenged Tom's identity through his taunts over how he is treating Arthur. The easiest way to demonstrate that he is

16 "really" a man is to go out and physically attack a weaker male, which he does, thereby proving h1s obvious masculinity and removing any suspicion that he may be "spoiling" both Arthur and himself. Also of significance in this text with relation to the representation of the gay is that, for the first time in a young adult text, a physical set of characteristics is used to identify those who engage in same-sex relationships. The white-handed curly-headed boy is just that- a young boy who is both delicate and handsome but without a name.

Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye was published, nearly one hundred years after Hughes' text, in 1951. In that period there were three significant events within western society that had, in my opinion, profound and cumulative effects on the way in which the gay was thought of. The first was the release in England of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill and the Labouchere amendment in the

1880's. The second was the trials of Oscar Wilde at the turn of the century, and the third the two World Wars (1914- 1918 and 1939- 1945 respectively).

The Criminal Law Amendment Bill was drafted in response to the growing concern in British society with regard to prostitution. Curiously, most legislation aimed at containing gay men was linked to concerns over female prostitution.

The purpos8 of the Bill was to raise the age of sexual consent for women to sixteen. A series of newspaper articles, detailing 'how girl virgins were f·or sale at

£5 a time' (Spencer, 1995, p. 275), stirred the public morality and the Law passed virtually uncontested in 1861, though not without amendments­

Labouchere's amendment, the one relevant to the gay. At first he proposed that the age of consent for women be set at twenty-one but when this was defeated it was lowered to eighteen with the following clause added:

any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procur8s or attempts to procure the commission by any male of any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, 17 and being convicted thereof shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or with out hard labour (Spencer, 1995, p. 276).

The effect of this clause was to enable prosecutions for sodomy to became easier to achieve. The ambiguous wording of the clause made all sexual acts between men in private illegal, thereby driving the gay further underground.

Meeting places for gays became less defined because they had to be kept se­ cret and were, therefore, often only temporary. From 1879, most American states also revised their sodomy laws. They too made sexual acts between men a crime punishable by imprisonment. The result of the changes to these laws was a steady increase in both criminal persecutions of gay men and their imprisonment (Spencer, 1995, p. 275- 278).

The most public of these persecutions and imprisonments was that of Oscar

Wilde (1854 -1900), which occurred only nine years after the Labouchere amendment had become law. As Spencer asserts:

there has never been a more towering victim of such an inhuman clause (1995, p. 281 ).

Essentially, the three trials of Oscar Wilde were initiated on the grounds of libel and were the outcome of a personal battle between Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred

Douglas, and Douglas' father, the Marquess of Queensberry. In the course of the trials Wilde was,

accused of soliciting more than twelve boys, ten of whom were named, to commit sodomy (Spencer, 1995, p. 284), on fifteen separate counts. In the first two trials the jury were unable to deter-

18 mine Wilde's guilt or innocence. However, in the third trial he was convicted on charges of indecency.

It was during these trials that the phrase "the love that dare not speak its

name" was first attributed to Wilde to describe gay attraction (even though it was actually Douglas who coined the phrase in a poem written to Wilde). A far more wide-spread outcome of these trials, though, was to provide a homophobic society with a concrete figure that could be used as a template for identifying the gay in everyday society. Wilde's style of dress, his manners and actions became the defining example of how to recognise the gay on "the street". Homosexuality as a term had only recently entered the English language, with Wilde its first victim. The conviction of Oscar Wilde meant that no gay, despite class or prestige, could live in England without the fear of prison should they be dis­ covered (Spencer, 1995, p. 280- 288).

The two World Wars had differing effects on how society viewed thd gay and how the gay saw himself. The first World War enabled, for the first time, large numbers of gay or gay curious men (and women) to come together without the limitations of home and family and discover that they were not the only one to have a same-sex attraction. This was also the case with the second World War, even though there were efforts to keep gays from serving in the military, at least in the countries of the Allied forces. The United States Army and Navy, for example, established screening tests which were aimed at preventing the gay from enlisting. These tests drew on medical opinion and listed three character­ istics to enable the identification of the gay:

feminine bodily characteristics, effeminacy in dress and manner and a patulous or expanded rectum (Spencer, 1995, p. 347-348).

The detection of gays by such blatant physical signs was, as can be ex­ pected, ineffective because such signs can be easily covered up or rationally

19 explained. Many gays, when it was learnt that they were being refused service, went to great lengths to hide any tell-tale characteristics that rnay have identified them. Once enlisted, these men quickly formed communities of like-minded in­

dividuals. These communities, however, kept all such activities secret, to such

an extent that,

even among lovers, the habit was never to name or attempt to describe their relationships (Spencer, 1995, p. 348).

Despite the necessity of keeping their presence secret and hidden, the gays of the post-war years began to appreciate the political power that they held collec­ tively. Just as the first World War had brought together a diverse group of peo­ ple, so too did the second World War. Homosocial groups quickly became es­ tablished and networks developed meaning gays no longer had to live a life in isolation (Spencer, 1995, p. 350 -351).

With the birth of the Nuclear Age and the Cold War, however, the gay was once again positioned as a threat to humanity (much in the same way the sodomite was thought of as a threat to the repopulation of society after the devastation of the Black Death) as well as a threat to national security. Moreo­ ver, the secrecy needed to live as a gay meant that he was an ideal candidate for blackmail.

In 1948 Alfred Kinsey released the results of his investigation into male sexuality and challenged orthodox sexual values, with Higgins claiming that the release of this report can be seen as 'the single most important event' (1993, p.

161) in the history of the gay male. Kinsey revealed that of those men he ques­ tioned:

fifty per cent ... acknowledged erotic responses to their own sex, one-third had a post-adolescent experience; 4 per cent were exclusively

20 homosexual as adults; one out of eight males was predominantly homosexual for at least a three year period (Spencer, 1995, p. 355).

Kinsey's study is not only attributed with the figure of ten percent as c:3nifying the estimated percentage of the entire population who identify as gay in some way but it also served to remind society that gays could be found,

in every age group, in every social level, in every conceivable occupation, in cities, on farms, and in the most remote areas (Spencer, 1995, p. 355).

America of the early 1950's was a society buoyed by their contribution to the

Allied victory in the second World War but also one that was once again at war­ this time in Korea. There was a wide-spread hysteria within American society concerning a perceived communist threat, a fear that had grown up in the years after the second World War and a fear that was fed by politicians such as

American senator Joseph McCarthy. Communism was regarded as a very real threat to the foundations of western society and it was not long before the gay and the communist became inextricably intertwined in the public consciousness.

This was the time of "the red under the bed", and with Kinsey's report they could be under any bed, anywhere in the country.

The gay content of Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye centers around the character of Mr. Antolini and his ca.-ess of the sleeping Holden's face (1951, p.

163-174). Mr. Antolini is a teacher from one of Holden's previous schools, now an English professor at New York University, and one of the few adults whom

Holden seems to trust. This is evident in the fact that Holden consistently refers to his old teacher as "Mr." Antolini rather than "old", as he refers to everyone else he encounters - for example, he repeatedly refers to his Pencey

Preparatory history teacher as 'old Spencer' (Salinger, 1951, p. 4). The encoun- 21 ter with Mr. Antolini takes place just after Holden's visit with his younger sister,

Phoebe, at his parents' apartment. This is when he reveals his desire to be the catcher in the rye of the title, rescuer of children. To Holden, Mr. Antolini has become 'a role model, a good father' (Miller, 1990, p. 141), although he is around the same age as Holden's eldest brother, D.B.

After Holden and Mr. Antolini discuss the direction that Holden's life is taking,

Mr. Antolini makes up a bed for Holden on a couch and Holden quickly falls asleep. He is aw<''

(Salinger, 1951, p.175) at him. Phillips argues that Holden's response to Mr.

Antolini's actions as having gay overtones is brought about by 'the pressure of his awakening sexuality' (1999b, p. 2).

Holden's reaction can also be read, however, as him perceiving Mr. Antolini's actions as those of a sexual predator or as a representation of 'the dangers of the larger adult world' (Jenkins, 1998, p. 6) into which Holden is reluctantly moving. The image of the gay as a sexJal predator was one that was being ac­ tively promoted in this time of McCarthyism, along with the wide-spread linkage of the gay with both the communist and the belief that gays preyed on children in order to recruit them into a "gay lifestyle". To me, this explains Holden's pan­ icked exit from the Antolini apartment. Society has conditioned Holden to fear emotional intimacy with other males so his natural reaction is to flee in a "homosexual panic".

Mr. Antolini's alleged homosexuality, however, is based only on Holden's in­ terpretation of the situation. Mr. Antolini admits to having spoken to Holden's father and sharing his concern that Holden is heading for a fall if he continues along the path he is currently following (Salinger, 1951, p. 167 -168). Mr.

22 Antolini's actions can, therefore, also be read as the actions of a concerned father-figure unable to do little more to help than sit and watch over the sleeping

Holden. It is interesting to note that as he is leaving the Antolini's apartment

Holden acknowledges that he has been in a similar situation 'about twenty times since I was a kid' (Salinger, t951, p.174). The reader can only wonder how

Holden would have reacted in those previous situations!

The following morning Holden contemplates returning to the Antolinis' as he had said he would when he hurriedly left the night before. Throughout The

Catcher in the Rye, Holden passes judgement on all those he comes into con­ tact with and they are either judged innocent or condemned. Only with Mr.

Antolini does Holden question if 'he hasn't pulled the self-righteous trigger too quickly' (Pinsker, 1986, p. 956) when he asks himself:

if just maybe I was wrong about thinking he was making a flitty pass at me. I wondered if maybe he just liked to pat guys on the head when they're asleep (Salinger, 1951, p. 175).

Frangedis proposes that just as Holden reconsidered his judgement of Mr.

Antolini, Salinger,

seems to be suggesting that so, perhaps should we - despite society's ... demand that we condemn such individuals (1998, p. 74).

Although Salinger's motivation can never be known, this does seem a plausible reading as it contributes · o a reader's understanding both Holden's outrage and the almost casual reaction of Mr. Antolini to Holden's behavior, whom he repeatedly calls 'a very, very strange boy' (Salinger, 1951, p. 173).

Phillips argues that Mr. Antolini represents Holden's,

only hope of making a sympathetic 23 connection with an adult, a way to interact with the world without losing his innocence (1999b, p. 2).

However, the fact that Holden interprets Mr. Antolini's actions as being homo­ sexual in nature reveals that Holden has already lost his childhood innocence and now views the world as an adult does. That is, issues of sexuality were perceived socially as being an adult concern, therefore for Holden to react to the actions of a trusted adult as being sexual in intent marks Holden's final steps through the field of rye towards the unseen cliff of his dream (Salinger, 1951, p.

156).

Phillips states that this field of rye and unseen cliff are symbolic of childhood and the transition from adolescence into adulthood (1999a, p. 2). In this context,

Holden's outrage can be seen as symptomatic of his inability to 'connect with anyone in any way' (Miller, 1990, p. 141) as he metaphorically stumbles off the edge of the cliff of childhood and into adulthood. This is indicated by his subsequent breakdown while wandering the winter streets of New York, praying to his dead brother Allie:

Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Allie, don't let me disappear. Please Allie (Salinger, 11951, p. 178).

Mr. Antolini's reaction, therefore, to Holden's response can be read as that of an adult bewildered by an irrational adolescent who already has a history of self­ destructiva behavior. It is for this reason that the actions of Mr. Antolini, I believe, are not those of a gay male, but rather those of a concerned adult for a troubled adolescent. Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, Holden has attempted to resist the natural transition from adolescent to adult with his encounter with

Mr. Antolini serving as a symbolic representation of the child becoming completely aware of the complexities that accompany the assurn•Jtion of an 24 adult identity. Mr. Antolini's homosexuality is only ever alleged by an unreliable narrator. However, other views are also held. As recently as 1988 Frangedis considered the gay content of this text to be such an issue that he identifies it as one that teachers must place 'into proper perspective' (1988, p. 74).

In the 1960's, gays across the western world became increasingly aware of the need for a more militant approach to the issue of law reform. By the end of the 1960's society had begun to question the old order. Spencer (1995, p. 367) identifies the student revolts in Paris of 1968, a rise in student militancy across the globe, open-air concerts, anger in the United States over the Vietnam War, the 'Prague Spring' in Czechoslovakia, and the "make love, not war" ideology of the hippie movement as all contributing to the sense of social revolution that was filtering through all levels of western society in the late 1960's.

1969 saw what has come to be considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement in the form of the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village, New York.

This confrontation between the police and gays was precipitated by a police raid of a gay bar and lasted three days. For the first time, the patrons fought back.

1969 also saw the publication of the ground-breaking text I'll Get There. It

Better Be Worth The Trip by John Donovan. This text is cited in several studies of young adult literature (Hanckel & Cunningham, 1980; Ford, 1994; Fuoss,

1994; Cart, 1897) as being,

the first YA novel to specifically address homosexuality in the lives of young adults (Jenkins, 1998, p. 1).

The means by which Donovan addresses the topic of gay adolescence, how­ ever, has influenced the way in which subsequent authors have approached the issue.

In I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip, thirteen year old Davy moves to

New York alter the death of his grandmother to live with his alcoholic mother. 25 His parents are divorced and his father has a new girl-friend. One of the few things Davy is able to bring with him to New York is his beloved pet dog, Fred, whom Davy has raised from a puppy. At his new school, Davy befriends another boy, Douglas Altschuler, who is also recovering from a recent bereavement - that of a childhood friend to leukemia.

Sutherland and Arbuthnot argue that the 'brief homosexual relationship'

(1991, p. 375) which develops between Davy and Altsculer one night is the re­ sult of the two boys' bereavement and the fact that they both have divorced

parents. This brief relationship is a one night only encounter and takes place off­ stage. What actually happened between the buys is never revealed. However,

Davy realises that he now has 'a new way of looking at Altschuler because of what we did last night' (Donovan, 1969, p. 126).This is, though, the only

indication that anything at all did take place. Davy explains that he and

Altschuler had begun by boasting of their alleged sexual prowess which leads them to claim to be 'more or less engaged' (Donovan, 1969, p. 126) to their re­ spective girl-friends. This, he claims, is 'how it happened' (Donovan, 1969, p.

126). However, later in the day after "it" has happened, Davy does question his sexuality:

there's nothing wrong with Altsculer and me, is there? I know it's not like making out with a girl. It's just something that happened. It's not dirty, or anything like that. It's all right, isn't it? (Donovan, 1969, p. 128).

Fuoss argues that because I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip:

grants physical expressions of homosexual love all the presence of an ellipsis (1994, p. 164), any advantages gained by the presence of homosexuality in this text for young 26 adults are negated. Placing the actual homosexual acts off-stage and reducing a physical act of love and tenderness merely to "it", makes the text less an open approach to gay adolescence and more 'an unseen moment of unknown sexuality' (Fuoss, 1994, p. 164). This is a device that was taken up and used by many authors in the years following 1969 in texts written for young adults incor­ porating gay sex. In all the young adult texts that I am using in this essay, if there are any physical expressions of gay sexuality all of them take place off­ stage and are referred to in the past tense.

This unseen moment of indeterminate sexuality attains a new significance, though, when Davy's parents' reactions to the possibility that their son may be gay are highlighted. In the week following the incident between the two boys, they act as if nothing has happened between them until Davy finally brings up the topic. In Davy's apartment the boys admit to being virgins, Altschuler stating that he 'wouldn't know what to do' (Donovan, 1969, p. 130) with a girl. Davy and

Altsculer then pass out drunk, but not before Davy gives Altsculer a kiss

(Donovan, 1969, p.129-131). When Davy's mother arrives home she discovers the boys asleep on the floor with an arm draped over each other's back. Her first

(and only) reaction is to assume that they have had sex. Her suspicions are aroused because,

it's not even six thirty, and you [Davy] and Douglas are asleep on the floor in the dark! (Donovan, 1969, p. 132).

She refuses to listen to any explanation offered by Davy and insists that Davy's father have a "man to man" talk with his son.

Davy's father, in comparison, is rational and forthright in his approach to his son's awakening sexuality. Davy admits to his father that he and Altschuler 'only made out once' (Donovan, 1969, p. 138), but has already softened this admission with the assertion that he is 'not queer or anything' (Donovan, 1969, 27 p. 137). This is precisely what Davy's mother believes he has become. His fa­

ther is, however, more practical in his discussion, telling Davy that 'a lot of boys

play around in a lot of ways when they are growing up' (Donovan, 1969, p. 138).

This positions Davy and Altschuler's encounter as a phase most boys go

through in one form or another. He assures Davy that this is fine- provided, of

course, that he does not 'get involved in some special way of life which will close

off other ways' (Donovan, 1969, p. 138). In other words, Davy's father is

tolerating his son's ,;upposed exploration of gay sexuality, believing it to be only

a phase that he, like most boys, will go through before assuming a full hetero­

sexual identity. It takes the death of Fred, Davy's pet dog, however, to ensure that Davy makes the right decision.

Fred is run over by a car directly after this father-son discussion. Davy blames

himself r.nd Altschuler for his death, interpreting the death of his dog as

punishment for what they did together. That is, if they had not 'made out'

(Donovan, 1969, p. 138) then Davy would not have had to have the discussion

with his father which, in turn, means that Fred would not have been on the street and in a position to be hit by a car. As Cart claims:

inevitably the boy - and the empathetic reader- infer that this is a cause-and-effect punishment for doing the now obviously awful "it" (1997, p. 3).

In order for the two boys to resolve their falling out, Donovan has them resort to a fist-fight in the school locker-room. Afterwards Davy confronts Altschuler

'about this queer business' (Donovan, 1969, p. 157), quick to claim that he had

never done anything like it before. Interestingly, Altschuler is far less disturbed about what they did together than Davy is. He even admits that although it did

upset him that "it" happened, 'it didn't feel wrong' (Donovan, 1969, p. 157) and that he certainly does not feel any guilt over what they did together.

28 Davy, on the other hand, has convinced himself that the problem is due to them being virgins and not having girl-friends, stating that:

maybe if we made out with some girls, we wouldn't have to think about, you know, the other (Donovan, 1969, p. 158).

Altschuler agrees with him and the boys are left to resume their friendship, seemingly having solved the issue surrounding the "queer" business.

I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip, while praised for being the first young adult text to "openly" approach the topic of adolescent homosexuality also provided the blue-print for subsequent texts dealing with the subject. Positioning physical acts of gay love off-stage, death as a punishment for exploring the unorthodox and same-sex attraction as a passing phase to be grown out of all appear as narrative themes for the first time in I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth

The Trip and are themes that appear again and again in many young adult texts incorporating gay subject matter.

Michael Cart claims that, although I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip was published in the same year as the,

Stonewall riots and the birth of~: .9 gay liberation movement ... there is too little else that ... is liberated about it (1997, p. 3).

This attitude, however, seems to me to negate the importance of this text. De­ spite the shortcomings in the method by which I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth

The Trip constructs of the gay adolescent, there are some positive aspects to be derived from this text. The two extremes in reaction demonstrated by Davy's parents to the possibility that Davy may be gay are, I feel, a reflection of the shift in the attitudes to homosexuality in western society in the late 1960's.

The way in which Davy's mother reacts to the possibility that he is gay can be 29 seen as a reflection of the accepted and socially sanctioned means by which to

approach the issue. Davy's father's reaction, on the other hand, can be read as

an indication of a more wide-spread acceptance of those who 'are not just what

they are expected to be' (Donovan, 1969, p. 138). Altshuler's acceptance and

lack of guilt is another liberating aspect of I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The

Trip -for the first time an adolescent boy, in a young adult novel, has a same­

sex encounter and does not see it as being something he should be ashamed

of. In fact, the reader is left with the impression that "it" was something

Altschuler enjoyed and may well search out again.

30

,, __ ,- __ ,_ -- 4 - 9- -- - -·- ·- Chapter Chree

In this chapter I will be looking at A Candle for Saint Antony (1977) by Eleanor

Spence and Dance on my Grave (1982) by Aidan Chambers -texts which predate the full understanding of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Socially in the 1970's, across the globe, the gay male was becoming increasingly vocal and visible within mainstream society. Homosodal support groups began to take on a political aspect and were being fonmed in many major capital cities- for example, in

London in 1970 the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed, describing itself as

'a revolutionary organisation' (Spencer, 1995, p. 368).

These groups of individuals were brought together by 'the unique inebriation that resulted from being open about their gayness' (Spencer, 1995, p. 368). This sense of community manifested itself in street parades and demonstrations with the first American Pride Week celebrated in 1970 to commemorate the

Stonewall Riots of the previous year, and by 1972 'two thousand men anC: women marched under the GLF banner' (Spencer, 1995, p. 369) in a London

Gay Pride Week parade. American gay activists campaigned for sodomy laws to be repealed and for police to cease their harassment of gays. They also placed pressure upon the medical world to reconsider homosexuality as an illness. This was finally granted in 1973 when:

the American Psychiatric Association . . . decided to remove homosexuality from its official Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (lsay, 1989, p. 14).

From the Stonewall Riots onwards, America set the tone and mode for gay identity which the rest of society has followed. John D'Emilio claims that 'for gay men ... the 1970's were years of significant achievement' (1993, p. 467), with thousands of men openly assuming a gay identity, victory in some places in

31 I

having sodomy laws repealed, a relaxation in the restrictions against employing gays and the elimination of homosexuality as an illness. In the aftermath of the

"Sexual Revolution" of the 1960's, society began to view sex as being not only for the purpose of procreation but also as a source of pleasure. People began to increasingly view traditional marriage as anachronistic, opting instead to pursue de facto relationships. This relaxation of attitudes towards sex and marriage allowed people the relative freedom to explore their sexuality now that

'homosexuality and bisexuality were options' (Spencer, 1995, p. 373) to be ex­ plored. This was brought about, largely, by the increased visibility of gays, the idea of alternative lifestyles and the social debate they created.

Eleanor Spence's A Candle for Saint Antony is the first Australian text in my discussion. While it is claimed that this text presents a,

delicate exploration of the potentially homosexual relationship between two boys (Grgurich, 1982, p. 35), the actual gay component of the relationship that develops between the two boys- Rudi and Justin -is reminiscent of the 'special friendships' between boys that were popular in the nineteenth century. Rudi and Justin, both sixteen, come from very different worlds and are brought together at a private boys' school in suburban Sydney.

Rudi is fatherless and lives in a small, run-down second-story flat with his mother, who has to go out to work, and younger sister, Evie. He works part-time in a Greek owned milk-bar in order to pay for the books and uniform to the private school he has selected for himself, and been granted a scholarship, to attend. 'Small, and slight and generally young-looking' (Spence, 1977, p.14) and the only son of poor Austrian immigrants, Rudi has assumed adult re­ sponsibilities and, 'sampled independence at an early age' (Spence, 1977, p.

17).

32 Justin, on the other hand, comes from an affluent suburb and is the eldest of

three children. His father works in the city while his mother stays at home to

raise their children. Self-assured, Justin is conscious of 'his own well-built

physique and clear brown skin' (Spence, 1977, p. 17), but does not consider

himself conceited, instead seeing himself as being the beneficiary of 'Vincent

he1·edity' (Spence, 1977, p. 3). An unofficial leader of sorts amo.1g his small

clique of childhood companions, Justin is 'a conformist at heart and needs group

support' (Grgurich, 1982, p. 35). This is demonstrated throughout A Candle for

Saint Antony, but is most evident in the way Justin bows to the peer pressure

exerted by his friends to renounce Rudi and return to Sydney when they

discover that Rudi has admitted to Justin that he is love with him and wants

Justin to stay in Europe with him (Spence, 1977, p. 119-126).

Initially the two boys are antagonistic towards each other, Justin's racism and

Rudi's aloofness the trigger. When Justin destroys sheet music that had be­

longed to Rudi's father, Rudi responds to Justin's threats of violence with logic

and humour, thereby diffusing the situation. In an abrupt change of heart, Justin

offers to replace the sheet music and the boys become friends (Spence, 1977,

p. 39-41 ). The two boys become even closer when Rudi and Justin begin to

study together in order for Justin to raise his grades, enabling him to participate

in a class excursion to Austria.

The construction of these characters, however, can be seen as perpetuating

stereotypical representations of the gay. Rudi is delicate, small, youthful, a lover

of classical music, a loner, academically gifted and sensitive - all attributes

ascribed to the gay in the images proffered by popular culture. Justin is well­ built, tanned, at ease with his body, popular, sports-loving, intelligent but

unmotivated academically and very much "one of the crowd" - characteristics

most often associated with heterosexual youths, especially Australian youths. A more disturbing aspect regarding the representation of the gay adolescent in A

33 Candle for Saint Antony is the positioning of a gay identity as one that only an

Other, a loreigner, can assume and carry into adulthood.

While in Australia, the friendship between Rudi and Justin remains strictly platonic with no sexual overtones. However, once the boys arrive in Austria Rudi is able to admit his feelings to Justin, urging him to remain in Europe with him so they can pursue a life together. Justin is overwhelmed by this proposition and is, in the end, unable to break free of the peer support and validation that he needs to maintain his own self-identity. Rudi's self-sufficiency and independence have already positioned him, by this stage of the text, as being capable of supporting himself and the reader is left in no doubt that Rudi will carry his adolescent gay identity into adulthood, but only if he severs his connection to Australia and remains in Europe.

Justin's brief flirtation with the possibilities presented by Rudi convey the im­ pression that although he acknowledges an emotional attachment to Rudi, an open gay relationship is too much of a challenge to his self-identity. He returns to Australia, lea·;ing Rudi in Europe and 'for many years to come, Justin would regret that he had let him go' (Spence, 1977, p. 126). The reader is left to as­ sume that he will "grow out" of this phase and once again take on a heterosex­ ual identity, the gay having no place in Australia. This is reinforced at the end of the novel when Justin is able to look at Rudi's sister, Eve, and find 'her pleasant to look at .... that she hardly resembled Rudi at all in looks' (Spence, 1977, p. 135).

An adolescent reader can only be left with the impression that, according to A

Candle for Saint Antony, although homosexuality may be tolerated outside of

Australia, it has no place within Australian society. Because Justin returns home and once again begins to notice girls, homosexuality is constructed as being an identity that an Australian adolescent boy may consider, although, ultimately it is a "phase" he will go through before taking on a "complete" heterosexual identity.

34 This is similar to the way that Davy's exploration of gay sex is presented in !1! Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip. However, in this Australian text there are no physical expressions of gay sexuality. Rudi's confession to Justin of his feelings is the only indication that either of the boys consider their relationship to be anything more than a close friendship, or "mateship".

The year after the publication of A Candle for Saint Antony, 1978, the first parade of what has become known as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras took place -marking the birth of the modem Australian gay rights movement.

Based closely on American models, the first Mardi Gras parade was a political march with activists calling for the same changes to be made to Australian laws as was happening in America. Australian laws, modelled on the British legal system, still had many of the punishments for sodomy that had been formulated in the earliest years of white settlement in the late eighteenth century. Homo­ sexual acts between men, regardless of the venue, were punishable by impris­ onment. Gays had no recourse to harassment of any kind with the police often the perpetrators of the harassment.

Australian concepts of masculinity and, therefore, attitudes to gays are strongly influenced and shaped by homophobia. The Australian gay, much like gays around the world, are perceived as "failed" men becauso they "choose" to pursue a gay lifestyle. As Michael Flood states, while Australian boys are growing up they are,

faced with the continual threat of being seen as gay and the continuous challenge of proving that they are not gay ... step outside the boundaries of masculine behavior and you're immediately faced with verbal and physical attacks (1995, p. 1).

The result of this is that,

35 the fear of being identified as a "poofter" leads men to behave in hypermasculine and aggressive ways (Flood, 1995, p. 1), with the victimising of gay men a convenient means of asserting a heterosexual identity. Through punitive punishments for those who identify as gay as well as physical attacks upon gay men, heterosexual men are able to assert and reaf­ firm their own masculinity.

In response to the gay rights movement, anti-gay movements began to challenge the demands of gay activists. They drew upon the Bible to support their cause, despite that,

out of the 31,173 verses contained in the Bible, there are less than a dozen that allegedly deal witl1 the topic of homosexuality ... Jesus himself said nothing (Shepherd, 1999, p. 10), arguing that homosexuality was "unnatural" and that 'the lives of homosexuals revolve around sex and the pursuit of sexual encounters' (Shephard, 1999, p. 3).

Anti-gay organisations also encouraged the misconceptions that gays are unhappy loners; that gays intentionally flaunt their sexuality; that they are child mclesters; opposed to traditional family values and that gays have a hidden agenda which will destroy the moral fabric of society if their demands for equal rights are granted (Shephard, 1999).

However, despite these divergent attitudes to gays, the late 1970's and early

1980's became somewhat of a golden era for the gay male. In spite of the re­ strictions that were steadfastly held in place by a heterosexist society, gays were able to utilise the lowering of taboos relating to sex to explore their own sexuality and build a sense of community.

Nancy St. Clair claims that 1982 is considered,

to have been the peak year for 36 publishing of young adult novels dealing with homosexuality (1994, p 6), with Aidan Chambers Dance on my Grave perhaps the most notable of these novels. This text is of significance to the representation of the gay adolescent because for the first time in a young adult text, events are 'narrated in the first person by a character who is unambiguously gay' (Fuoss, 1994, p. 165). Dance on my Grave is also one of the few young adult texts to incorporate male adoles­ cent bisexuality, another factor contributing to the significance of this tex!.

Chambers is noted for his unconventional approach to narrative construction and in Dance on my Grave he,

mixes elements of different styles, changes point of view, incorporates reports, scenes, clippings, and footnotes (Gill, 1997, p. 2), producing a text that not only incorporates gay adolescence but also explores,

the inability of language to adequately capture and communicate ... desire (Fuoss, 1994, p. 171 ).

Hal, the unambiguously gay central character of Dance on my Grave, presents the argument that 'desire ... not only precedes but also exceeds language'

(Fuoss, 1994, p. 171) when he attempts to provide the details of his relationship with Barry, the bisexual, noting:

I was going to write pages more about those seven weeks. I wanted you to understand what we were like together. What Barry was like. Like to me: how I saw him, knew him, thought of him. But ... it can't be done. The words are not right. They just ARE NOT RIGHT. They don't say what I want the. ·1 to say. They tell 37 lies. They hide the truth ... the meaning is hidden behind them (Chambers, 1982, p. 163-164).

Chambers, himself, holds the conviction that it is not our experiences which change us, rather that it is the telling ot these experiences, the 'stories we tell about our experiences' (Chambers, 1985, p. 112) which brings about change.

This is why Chambers claims that Dance on my Grave is 'a novel about obsession' (1985, p.112) - in the end, an obsession:

with the telling of an experience, that imperative, universally felt desire to put into words what has happened to us (Chambers, 1985, p 112).

This inability of language to adequately explain experience was an issue that gay activists were debating also in the early 1980's. Raised in a heterosexist society, gays only have heterosexual tenms of reference to label their relation­ ships and their positions within these relationships. Activists argued that these terms of reference (for example, boy-friend, lover, husband) do not adequately explain the emotional bonds in a gay relationship and offered alternatives such as "significant other", "long-time companion", and "life-experience partner" to describe these relationships. As yet, a consensus has yet to be reached within the wider gay community as to how best label gay relationships although "boy­ friend" has become the most common tenm used to describe a gay partner.

Hal Robinson is sixteen years old, openly gay, the central character of Dance on my Grave and is first introduced to the reader in a newspaper article which reports that he has been arrested for damaging the grave of eighteen year old

Barry Gorman (Chambers, 1982, p. 5). Barry was Hal's boy-friend and dies in a motorcycle accident after he and Hal have an argument over Barry's sexual af­ fairwith a Norwegian au pair girl, Kari (Chambers, 1982, p. 179-180).1! is this act of vandalism - which is in reality the fulfilment of a promise Hal made to

38 Barry- that forces Hal to "come out", or inform those closest to him that he is

gay. Homosexuality is not presented as a major concern for adolescents- Hal is

not rejected, for example, by his parents over his sexuality. If anything, Hal is

"rewarded" at the end or Dance on my Grave when he seduces 'the succulent

Spike' (Chambers, 1982, p 15) and gives him 'a present from Southend'

(Chambers, 1982, p. 251). The issue of adolescent bisexuality, however, is a

completely different matter.

Barry is constructed as be1ng promiscuous with him having (implied) sex with

a complete stranger after he and Hal finish their first date (Chambers, 1982, p.

112). Mrs. Gorman reveals that Barry has had many male partners in the past with her reference to 'all of Bubby's boys' (Chambers, 1982, p. 28) and Barry seduces Kari in front of Hal (Chambers, 1982, p. 172-173). During the fight be­ fore his death Barry even admits to his promiscuity, stating:

I like change now and then. More than that really. I want to get into as many different things as I can ... as many different people. One is never enough. Not for me (Chambers, 1982, p. 179).

In an interesting twist for a young adult text with gay content, it is not Hal who is punished for his sexual identity. Rather it is Barry, the bisexual, who dies. The impression that this creates is that Barry is "punished" because he refuses to adopt a consistent sexual identity. This can be seen as a reflection of social atti­ tudes to bisexuality that had arisen out of the advances made by the gay rights movement.

With gays now making significant inroads towards the social acceptance of homosexuality as a genetic predisposition, the bisexual temporarily •oplaced the gay as an object of derision and contempt. This was facilitated by the outbreak of HIV and AIDS in the early 1980's when the bisexual replaced the homosexual as the most potent threat to the integrity of society and the well-being of the 39 family.

Just as I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip was praised for its open exploration of gay adolescence, so too was Dance on my Grave. However, like the Donovan text Dance on my Grave employs a number of devices which re­ duces the openness ~f this exploration. All sexual acts between the boys are referred to in the past tense and by the term 'a present from Soulhend'

(Chambers, 1982, p.149). Chambers explains that even though sex between

Barry and Hal is referred to but never described:

anyone who follows the clues can piece together precisely what is going on (1985, p. 112), although what 'a present from Southend' (Chambers, 1982, p. 149) and 'a present from Southend of a kind I hadn't had before' (Chambers, 1982, p. 157) actually are is, in the end, left entirely to the reader's imagination. The entire relationship between Hal and Barry lasts only seven weeks which perpetuates the myth that gay men are unable to sustain long-term relationships and the fight with the "bikie" gang (Chambers, 1982, p. 131-146) serves to continue the association of homosexuality with violence, when Barry and Hal are attacked by a group of "bikers" when they (correctly) assume that the boys are gay.

By the early 1980's, as reflected in young adult literature among other things, the gay had finally begun to achieve a small degree of social acceptance and legal recognition within the wider heterosexual community. This was tempered by the first mention in an article in the New York Times in July, 1981 (Higgins,

1993, p. 285), of a disease that appeared to be only affecting gay men. AIDS began to decimate gays across the globe and this early association between gays and AIDS led the disease to be labelled the "gay plague". Anti-gay groups and religious leaders were quick to link AIDS with the concept of divine pun­ ishment: homosexuality, despite the advances of gay activists, was still thought

40 of as unnatural and now God, they argued, was punishing those who continued to pursue a gay lifestyle.

41 Chnpte_r_Four

In this chapter I will be looking at how the remaining two texts in my essay,

Two Weeks with the Queen (1989) by Morris Gleitzman and The Drowning of

Stephan Jones (1991) by Bette Greene, present the issue of homosexuality and

the gay male in the years after the arrival of HIV. With moralists and religious

leaders promulgating the idea that AIDS was divine retribution in response to the

permissiveness of society in general and the unnaturalness of homosexuality

specifically, a far-reaching moral panic quickly developed and,

hospital staff became hysterical, ambulance drivers disinfected their vehicles, policemen refused to give the kiss of life to known gays ... and wore gloves and protective clothing when they raided gay bars, children with the virus were banned from schools and theatre personnel refused to work with gay actors (Spencer, 1995, p. 377).

Throughout the 1980's hostility and homophobia towards gays increased in

intensity. In Britain, a 1983 poll asked if the respondent 'approved of

homosexual relationships' (Spencer, 1995, p. 381 ). Sixty-two percent did not. By

1987 that figure had risen to seventy-four percent (Spencer, 1995, p. 381).

Although the 1967 Act decriminalised consensual gay sex between men in the

privacy of their own bedroom (provided, of course, they were the only ones at the venue), the gay did not have equal citizenship. The Act gave no protection against discrimination, 'abuse, intolerance and violence' (Spencer, 1995, p.

381 ). In effect this created the impression that there was one set of laws for het­ erosexuals and another for homosexuals. The most notable of these inequalities

is the marked differences in the age of consent for heterosexuals as opposed to homosexuals. Where decriminalised, consensual homosexual sex is legal at twenty-one. Consensual heterosexual sex is legal in most countries from the

42 age of sixteen (legal Age Of Consent, 1999).

It was in this environment of fear and hatred that Two Weeks with the Queen was published. The hostile attitudes of society can be found in the construction of the two gay characters in this text. Jenkins (1 999, p. 3) states that in the texts written for young adults with a gay theme published after i 885, there is a return of the gay to the margins of other characters' narratives, usually a he:erosexual character. This marks a return to the position gays occupied ·,n young adult texts prior to 1969. That is, the gay adolescent reverted from being the teller of his own story (for example, Davy in I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip and

Hal in Dance on my Grave) to being secondary characters in the narrative of a heterosexual protagonist- just as Ted and Griff are secondary (although crucial) characters in Colin's story in Two Weeks with the Queen.

Twelve year old Colin Mudford is sent to stay with relatives in England when his younger brother is diagnosed as having leukemia. Once in England, Colin quickly embarks upon his plan to visit the Queen. His logic is that as the Queen is one of the most important people in the world, she will have the telephone number of 'The Best Doctor In The World' (Gieitz'llan, 1989, p. 34), whom he will telephone and convince to return to Australia with him to cure his brother's illness. On the second day that he is in London, Colin manages to navigate a public transport system (London's underground ·~ube"), that he has only learnt of the day before, to get to Buckingham Palace.

When Colin's plan to scale the walls of Buckingham Palace and lie in wait so he can approach the Queen privately is thwarted he decides that he will search for the best cancer hospital and find the best doctor himself. Colin begins his search for just s11ch a hospital by telephoning his cousin Alistair's doctor.

However, the receptionist interprets his question as a school project and hangs up on him. Not deterred, Colin considers who next to try:

The City of London Information Centre? The Houses of Parliament? 43 The Times? He rang the Royale Fish Bar in Peckham (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 72).

The proprietor of the fish shop reports that his customers agree,

that the best cancer hospital in London was the one that had cured Ernie Stringfellow's prostate trouble. He told Colin the name and the address (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 73).

His aunt and uncle have, however, installed locks on all the windows and doors

of their house after Colin and Alistair's failed raid on Buckingham Palace but

once again Colin is undeterred from his quest to help his brother. Unscrewing the lock on the back door, Colin sets off all the while assuring Alistair that he would be back before Alistair's parents returned. Colin approaches one of the doctors in the hospital when he arrives there but is escorted out when the doctor

ignores Colin's plea for help and resents having his routine interrupted.

It is in the car-park after his encounter with 'The Worst Doctor In The World'

(Gieitzman, 1989, p. 79) that Colin first encounters Ted. He is surprised to dis­ cover that Ted is crying but Colin is reassured when Ted explains that 'once a week I treat myself to a bit of a cry' (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 82), because he has a friend in the hospital who is very ill. Colin assumes that the friend must be his girl-friend because Ted becomes emotional explaining why his friend is in the hospital (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 81-82). It is not until Colin visits Ted's apartment that he realises that Ted is gay. While Colin accepts Ted's homosexuality, he sees it not as a biological identity but rather as a matter of choice when Colin states:

he knew that men sometimes fell in love with each other and that it was called being gay. The idea had never worried him that much, though he didn't think he ever would himself (italics added) 44 (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 107).

In Two Weeks with the Queen, Gleitzman incorporates the issues of gay men and AIDS as a means of enabling Colin to realise the importance of loved ones being together in a time of crisis- such as a terminal illness. The implication behind this is that Gleitzman believes that those on the out-side of mainstream society (here it is gays) have the ability to demonstrate to those on the inside of mainstream society, that is heterosexuals, basic acts of "human kindness" because of their struggles against oppression on the margins of society. It is this which leaGs Roback and Donahue to claim that it is the friendship that develops between Ted and Colin which enables Colin,

to shed his self-centered ways and allow a brave, resourceful and loving person to emerge (1991' p. 105).

However, Gleitzman's construction of Ted and his relationship with Griff, contributes to the perpetuation of several myths concerning homosexuality. The first of these is the length of Ted and Griff's relationship - 'six years we've been together' (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 107)- gives no indication of the difficulties asso­ ciated with maintaining a gay identity and creates the impression that the prac­ ticalities of a gay relationship are irrelevant. The use of derogatory terms to refer to gays is condoned when Colin remembers,

he'd heard men at barbeques say queens when they were talking about gay men. They usually sneered as they said it (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 107).

As in Tom Brown's Schooldays and I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip, a gay identity is linked with violence. Ted's bashing at the hands of homophobic youths (Gieitzman, 1989, p. 108) suggests to the reader that if an openly gay identity is taken on then the gay male can expect to be the victim of violent 45 attacks as a "natural" consequence -much in the way Hal and Barry are at­ tacked in Dance on my Grave. This takes on an even greater negativity when all signs of gay intimacy are positioned off-stage or only alluded to in Two Weeks with the Queen.

Moreover, the fact that it is Griff, a gay man, who dies from AIDS contributes to, and supports, the idea that AIDS is a disease that only affects gay men -a belief that was wide-spread for most of the 1980's. Of significance to the Aus­ tralian adolescent reader is that, as in A Candle for Saint Antony , a homosexual identity is presented as one that only non-Australians can take into adulthood.

Colin acknowledges that gay men are spoken of in Australia, but usually with derision. Ted and Griff are both young men, originally from Wales, who have migrated to London in search of employment. After Griff's death, Ted is left to return to his family in Wales and mourn the loss of his lover.

During the second half of the 1980's gay activists regrouped. They demanded government funding for medical research into AIDS. However, societal attitudes had once again turned against gays and their "lifestyle". The gay male found himself in a curious position. Although consensual sexual acts between men had been decriminalised and a legally recognised age of consent established, penalties and restrictions were introduced that sought to keep gays from gather­ ing and maintaining a coherent sense of community, subsequently restricting the opportunities for gays to protest against these inequalities. Homosexuality was considered an issue that should be kept from adolescents because it was believed that to speak of it was to encourage experimentation.

Bette Greene's The Drowning of Stephan Jones (1991) is my final text and was:

inspired by a true crime, the drowning of a gay man by a teenager on a "religious" rampage (Greene, 1992, p. 1).

46 The Drowning of Stephan Jones, through its open, and somewhat brutal, dis­ cussion of homophobia:

appears frequently in bibliographies for recommended reading that deal with issues involving gay and lesbian youth (Finnessy, 1998, p. 2).

I include it in my discussion because it is the first young adult text which openly

acknowledges and incorporates the presence of a wider gay community. For the first time in a young adult novel gays are presented as belonging to a social

group of like-minded individuals, although they do not occupy centre-stage.

The Drowning of Stephan Jones is the story of Carla Wayland and her in­ volvement in the death of Stephan Jones at the hands of her boy-friend, Andy

Harris, and his friends. Carla's mother, Judith, is the local librarian in their small

mountain town, Rachetville Arkansas. Judith is considered to be controversial

because she,

would stand up and speak out for things that others were against, and she was often absolutely opposed to what others favored (Greene, 1991, p. 20).

As a teenager, Carla is embarrassed by her mother's actions so when hand­

some, popular and wealthy Andy Harris asks her out, Carla quickly takes ad­

vantage of the opportunity to rise on the high-school social ladder and to be

thought of as being popular. As is the case with so many adolescent girls, Carla

relinquishes her own beliefs and attitudes and takes on those of her boy-friend­

blindly accepting what another tells her.

Andy Harris, however, is a psychologically damaged young man who is vic­

timised and tormented by his father. As Andy admits to Carla, 'he calls me

names ... he calls me 'Miss Andy' like I'm some fag' (Greene, 1991, p. 55).

47 Andy has acquired a stereotyped understanding of what it is to be a man from his father, who equates violence and hypermasculine behavior with a masculine identity. Because Andy's masculinity has been constantly questioned and un­ dermined by his father, ironically in an attempt "to make a man out of him", Andy has a lot to prove in his campaign of hate against Stephan - who is openly gay along with his partner, Frank. Greene is cited as explaining that Andy targets

Stephan because he is not a fighter and therefore,

with the harassment of Stephan Jones, Andy could prove that he was really a man. That's what he wanted from Stephan. If he vanquished Stephan Jones, wouldn't that prove, once and for all, that he was a man? (Aivine, 1994, p. 3).

To me, however, The Drowning of Stephan Jones is as much a call for indi­ viduals to stop and analyse what it ts that they are being told by the church and the media as it is a novel about the "evil" of homophobia. This is most clearly highlighted, I believe, by Judith's attempts to get Carla to deconstruct a senmon that they have heard in the church of which Andy Harris and his family are mem­ bers (Greene, 1991, p. 36-48). During this sermon, the minister preaches,

wearing the cross of Jesus, we will be fighters against Satan, and it matters not in which guise he appears. Take warning all you pornographers! ... Take warning all you child molesters! ... Take warning all you homosexuals! ... We Christian soldiers are going to smite you! ... we're going to up and smite you dead! (Greene, 1991, p. 38).

Judith encourages Carla to question the integrity of a man who claims, in his

position as minister, to speak for God and yet preach hatred. His sermon can even be read as an incitement to violence. That is, if a member of his

48 congregation were to encounter a pornographer, a child molester or a homosexual they have been told that God has sanctioned the killing of theca

"agents of Satan". Carla refuses to listen to her mother, however, claiming that

Judith is just trying to create trouble because she insists on seeing things that are not there (Greene, 1991, p. 43).

In her construction of the gay characters Frank Montgomery and Stephan

Jones, Bette Greene exposes,

the reader to several nuances and images of the gay culture ... for example, she introduces the reader to the pink triangle, a gay pride symbol ... once used to identify homosexuals during the Holocaust (Finnessy, 1998, p. 2).

However, as Patrick Finnessy argues:

while Greene tries to break stereotypes of gays, unfortunately she reinforces other societal stereotypes (1998,p.2).

Most of the stereotyping in The Drowning of Stephan Jones concerns the depiction of the townspeople of Rachetville. As Finnessy claims:

through her book [Greene] ... consistently portrays the townspeople as ignorant, southern Christian activists (1998, p. 2).

The result of stereotyping the American Christian Right and their attitudes and opinions towards gays is to pit one group (the Christian Right) against another

(gays). It does not really allow for the growth of individual understandings in ei­ ther direction. Hence, the novel reinforces the notion of the two groups being separate "camps".

49 As I stated above, the reason for the inclusion of this text in my essay is that for the first time in a young adult text, there is a reference to the wider gay community and to the support groups for gay men. This is significant to the representation of the gay because it shows for the first time gay men with ac­ cess to other gay men. This appearance of the extended gay community must be put into context, though. It is not until after Stephan has been killed and at the sentencing of Andy (after the trial) that the community's presence is made known. More-over, they are positioned as being able to do little more than offer moral support (Greene, 1991, p. 196-198) t8 Frank, Stephan's lover.

Michael Thomas Ford is cited as saying that The Drowning of Stephan Jones,

does little to advance the provision of positive role models of gay ... characters, and it potentially enforces other stereotypes by harmfully creating a box around organised religion and implying that it is "bad" to be Christian (Finnessy, 1998, p. 5-6).

This has resulted in a text which despite its intentions segregates gays and re­ ligion, positioning them as mutually exclusive and incapable of integration. For the adolescent reader this may, it can be argued, portray homosexuality as a choice that negates religious values and, more importantly, makes the gay a deviant subject to malicious and premeditated violence.

50 In this final chapter I will, as I indicated in the introduction, be investigating the issue of censorship in young adult literature. This censorship operates in a multi­ layered manner, with all groups involved in the production, distribution and reception of young adult literature in a position to decide what is "appropriate" for an adolescent reader. Mark West lists these groups as editors, publishers, librarians, book-sellers, parents, school principals and teachers, and religious organisations (1 996, p. 498). That it was not until 1869 that the first open treat­ ment of homosexuality appeared in a young adult text, gives some indication of how persistent and pervasive the taboos against homosexuality are in both so­ ciety and young adult fiction.

The need for taboos was born out of 'the growing acceptance of the idea of childhood innocence' (West, 1996, p. 498), which adults interpreted as meaning that children and young adults were to be spared, among other things, the de­ tails of unorthodox sexuality. As a result, authors developed 'a tradition of self­ censorship' (West, 1996, p. 499). This persisted until the 1960's which saw the taboos against many topics, previously considered the concerns of adults, lifted.

Sacco identifies some of these topics which were increasingly deemed suitable for a young adult reader as:

unwed pregnancy and early marriage, abortion, physical maturation, premarital sex, masturbation, ... problem parents, teenage drinking and smoking, drug addiction, child abuse, divorce, ... homosexuality ... and so on (1 994, p. 63).

It is no surprise that homosexuality is one of the last of these taboos. As I have shown throughout this essay, the way in which homosexuality and gay men are constructed reveals that a full rendering of the gay "lifestyle" has yet to appear in

51 a work of young adult fiction. Ford argues that this is largely due to the fact that homophobia has yet to attract the kind of social "guilt" that has been associated with comparable issues such as racism and the oppression of women (t994, p.

4).

The Moral Majority along with other conservative political and religious or­ ganisations, in response to the gay rights movement, encouraged their mem­ bers,

to speak out against sex education, the teaching of evolution, and 'sinful' children's books (West, 1996, p. 503), with the underlying belief that sexuality was an adult issue. Jenkins presents the argument that positive representations of openly gay adolescents would,

challenge the naturalness of gender itself and disrupt the notion of sexual orientation as a dichotomous variable. The shift that adolescents experience in viewing themselves, and being ... viewed by others, as sexual beings is already disturbing to adults who are hoping that their ... children ... will Just Say No. Further disruption is virtually intolerable (1998, p. 17).

West identifies that the influences the various groups involved in young adult publishing have takes many different forms. He points out that, even before a book reaches its intended audience,

a cautious editor may require the potentially controversial passages be deleted ... (and] further deletions ... made by the publisher ... especially if the ... publisher markets books through ... schools (West, 1996, p. 498).

52 Michael Thomas Ford claims that,

despite < 1 abundance of gay ... editors, writers, publishers; book­ sellers and librarians, the door to the children's book closet seems to be firmly shut (1994, p. 2), with most major publishing houses reluctant to be seen as 'that house that publishes gay books' (Ford, 1994, p. 2). In such a restrictive environment the primary concern becomes a matter of sales and profits. Ford states that,

publishers and writers ... hesitate to write or publish books that, while obviously needed, are at best a financial risk and at worst an invitation for backlash from groups opposed to homosexuality (1994, p.5).

Authors are reluctant to include homosexuality in their texts because of the po­ tential threat that their work will be subjected to censorship and because there is the very real fear that sales wHI be lost and school appearances cancelled.

The fact that a book is in print does not remove the threat of censorship. If the content of the text is deemed unsuitable, measures can be taken to restrict the accessibility of the text. West identifies the banning of the text from public and school libraries, pressure from parent-groups upon book-sellers to remove the text from their shelves and conservative librarians requiring parental permission for a controversial text to be loaned to a young adult reader as tactics available to those who are opposed to a text for any reason. Parent groups can also pressure school principals to discourage teachers from using a controversial text in the classroom while religious groups can encourage their members to forbid their children irom reading it (1996, p. 498). Censorship ca~. therefore, influence social attitudes to controversial topics.

Homosexuality attracts continued controversy because of the assumption that 53 'any discussion of homosexuality will automatically focus on the bedroom' (Ford,

1994, p. 3-4). Hence homosexuality, at least in its fullness, is still heavily

censored (despite its treatment in young adult literature over the past thirty

years). All gay adolescents are raised in a heterosexist society that offers few

positive images of homosexuality. Nearly ten perc~nt of adolescents are gay

but,

the suicide rate among gay teens is three times that of their straight counterparts, with 30% of gay teens attempting to take their own lives (Ford, 1994, p. 4).

The solution to this censorship of young adult texts with gay content is for those involved in the production of these texts to shift their attentions from

restricting the portrayal of the gay and, instead, focus upon eliminating homophobia. It appears clear that, before any advances can be made in the positive portrayal of the gay adolescent in young adult texts, the issue of homophobia and the link between violence and a gay identity must first be addressed.

54 Conclusion

At the beginning of this essay I claimed that I was going to investigate how the topic of homosexuality is constructed and represented in seven young adult

novels. The purpose of my investigation was to look at what it is in these con­ structions of homosexuality that can contribute to an understanding of the "gay experience", regardless of the reader's own sexual identity. In order to do this I gave a brief history of the behaviors which define the modern white-gay male,

beginning in Ancient Greece. From there I moved towards 1857 and the publi­ cation of Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, highlighting some of the major shifts in the attitudes of western society concerning how homosexuality was understood and contained.

I identified the prevalence of bisexuality among the men of Ancient Greece which came to be associated with the idea of the passive male by the mid­ fourteenth century. By the seventeenth century, the gay male had come to be considered as a threat to the survival of the human race. By the nineteenth century, homosexuality had changed from being perceived as a sin against God, to a criminal offence. In the early twentieth century it became a medical condition to be cured. It is only within the last decade that society has begun to accept the idea of homosexuality as genetic in origin, a 'nonpathological variant of human sexuality' (lsay, 1989, p. 12), and Hkely to be determined at concep­ tion.

With Tom Brown's Schooldays, I argued that the construction of homosexu­ ality in this classic young adult title presents a gay identity in such a way as to imply that if a boy "submits" to the sexual advances of older boys, then he will be the victim of violent assaults. This marks one of the first instances in a young adult novel of a heterosexual youth using violence upon a gay adolescent in order to re-establish his sense of masculinity when it is challenged. In Catcher in the Rye, attitudes to homosexuality had changed very little in the century since 55 the Hughes text, with the accusation of being gay portrayed as being almost as damaging as actually being gay. This was a reflection of the almost irrational paranoia that was wide-spread in countries such as America in the 1950's.

Kinsey's 1948 study of male sexuality reminded the wider community of how common-place same-sex attraction is among men. It also enabled gay men to

"come out", or openly live a gay lifestyle, knowing that at least ten percent of the population also acknowledges a same-sex attraction. The culmination of this was the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Led by men in drag, gays retaliated against the injustices of the legal system and the modern gay rights movement was born.

1969 was also the year that a young adult novel first openly examined gay adolescence. John Donovan's I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip, while exploring gay adolescence, does not portray it in a positive and fulfilling light.

Sexual expression is placed off-stage and referred to as "it", with the death of a beloved pet serving as punishment for Davy's exploration of the unorthodox.

Ultimately, the first open exploration of gay adolescence presents it as a phase to grown out of- hardly a reassuring message to those readers who are them­ selves gay.

The first Australian text in my essay also draws on the idea of homosexuality as a phase of adolescent development that is natural, yet not permanent- at least for Australian boys. According to A Candle for Saint Antony, a gay identity is only a viable option for those who do not live in Australia. It is not until1982 and the publication of Aidan Chambers' Dance on my Grave that the gay ado­ lescent comes :::lose to receiving a positive representation in a young adult novel. For the first time a gay protagonist is the teller of his own story, expressing no guilt oveJr his sexual identity. This was, of course, before the out­ break of HIV, which saw society return the gay male to a position of fear and loathing. Once again he was perceived as a threat to the survival of humanity.

Two Weeks with the Queen illustrates how attitudes to homosexuality had

56 changed within society, reflected in the fact that the gay characters of this novel have reverted to being secondary characters in a heterosexual's narrative. The characte;-s of Ted and Griff enable Colin to realise the importance of family be­ ing together in a time of crisis. Two Weeks with the Queen also constructs ho­ mosexuality and a gay identity as being only viable for foreigners or "non­

Australians".

The Drowning of Stephan Jones by Bette Greene was the last novel in my essay. In it, Greene constructs homosexuality and a gay identity as being something that is irreconcilable with orthodox religion and perceived by hetero­ sexuals as a sin worthy of death. The outcome of a campaign of hate, manifest in the heterosexual Andy Harris, is for Stephan Jones to be tortured and mur­ dered just because he was gay. Therefore, the treatment Stephan receives at the hands of his tormentors is little more than torture and murder commited by the child-like hands of extremists. The recourse permitted to Frank over the loss of his lover, Stephan, is to accuse the homophobic Andy of being gay in front of media and his family. This, within the society of the novel, establishes and rein­ forces homosexuality and a gay identity as an identity to be reviled. This would provide small comfort, if any, to a gay adolescent reader.

In the final part of my essay I highlighted the various groups involved in the production and distribution of young adult literature and how they all have a way of ensuring that "inappropriate" novels are kept from the hands of their intended audience. It comes as no surprise then that there are very few positive repre­ sentations of gay adolescence in young adult literature. There is an abundance of realistic representations of how the gay adolescent can expect to be treated by society. However, the real key to achieving positive and reaffinming representations of the gay male is for those involved in the production of these texts to shift their focus to making homophobia as socially unacceptable as ra­ cism and the oppression of other minority groups.

57 References

Alvine, L. (1994). Understanding Adolescent Homophobia: An Interview with Bette Greene In The ALAN Review, 21, (2) (Winter). [on-line]. Available WWW: http://scholar.lib. vt.edu/ejoumals/ALAN/winte r94/ Alvine .html [2000, March 1].

Carpenter, H. & Prichard, M. (1984). The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cart, M.(1997). Honoring Their Stories, Too: Literature for Gay and Lesbian Teens. In The ALAN Review, 25(1) (Fall). [on-line]. Available WWW: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejoumals/ALAN/fall97/cart.html [2000, March 1].

Chambers, A. (1982). Dance on my Grave. London: Red Fox.

Chambers, A. (1985). Booktalk. London: The Bodley Head Ltd.

D'Emilio, J. Capitalism and Gay Identity. In Abelove, H., Barale, M.A. & Halperin, D.M. (Ed's) (1993). The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.

Donelson, K.L. & Nilsen, A.P. (1980). Literature for Today's Young Adults. Glenview (lllinios):Scott, Foresman and Company.

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